Enabling Flexibility of Packet Length in a Communication Protocol

1. A method comprising: transmitting a first packet from a transmitter to a receiver along an interconnect, the first packet including a header indicating a payload length of a first size; and terminating transmission of the first packet at a packet disconnect boundary when the transmitter does not have sufficient credits to transfer data to a next packet disconnect boundary, the transmitter cannot guarantee streaming data to the next packet disconnect boundary, or the transmitter has insufficient data stored to the next packet disconnect boundary, the packet disconnect boundary corresponding to an allowable packet disconnect boundary for an extension to a communication protocol of the interconnect and having a length less than the payload length, wherein the packet transmission is terminated after transmission of a first portion of a payload corresponding to the payload length of the first size, and wherein the communication protocol requires the transmitter to guarantee that the payload length is less than or equal to available credits at the receiver and to guarantee no stall of packet transfer.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting a second packet from the transmitter to the receiver after terminating the first packet, the second packet having a higher priority than the first packet.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising transmitting a third packet after transmitting the second packet, the third packet including a remainder of the payload of the first packet.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising consuming the first portion of the packet in the receiver and not maintaining a history of the first packet in the receiver.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising transmitting the first packet when the transmitter has credits sufficient to reach the packet disconnect boundary, wherein transmitting the first packet comprises streaming data of the first portion of the payload from the transmitter to the receiver.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the allowable packet disconnect boundary is configurable.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein terminating the first packet includes transmitting an error code portion and a packet end symbol after the packet disconnect boundary.

8. An apparatus comprising: a first component to communicate with a second component over a point-to-point (PtP) interconnect, wherein the first component is to transmit a first packet along the PtP interconnect, the first packet including a header indicating a payload length of a first size, and terminate transmission of the first packet at a packet disconnect boundary, the packet disconnect boundary having a length less than the payload length, wherein the first component is further to transmit a second packet after termination of the first packet, the second packet having a higher priority than the first packet, and to transmit a third packet after transmission of the second packet, the third packet including a header including a payload length of a second size corresponding to a remainder of a payload of the first packet, and a payload portion corresponding to the payload remainder of the first packet, and wherein a communication protocol of the PtP interconnect requires the first component to guarantee that the payload length is less than or equal to available credits at the second component and to guarantee no stall of packet transfer.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the second component is to consume the first portion of the packet and not maintain a history of the first packet.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the first component is to transmit an error code portion and a packet end symbol after the packet disconnect boundary and before the second packet.

11. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the first component is to transmit the first packet when the first component has credits sufficient to reach the packet disconnect boundary, the first portion of the payload comprising streaming data.

12. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the packet disconnect boundary corresponds to a configurable allowable packet disconnect boundary of the communication protocol of the PtP interconnect.

13. An apparatus comprising: a transmitter to communicate with a component over a point-to-point (PtP) interconnect, wherein the transmitter is to transmit a first packet along the PtP interconnect, the first packet including a header indicating a payload length of a first size, when the transmitter has stored data equal to a packet disconnect boundary or can guarantee data to be streamed at least to the packet disconnect boundary, and having sufficient credits to the packet disconnect boundary, and terminate transmission of the first packet at the packet disconnect boundary when the transmitter upon approaching the packet disconnect boundary cannot guarantee data to be streamed without stalls until a next disconnect boundary, if the stored data is less than the next disconnect boundary, or does not have enough credits allocated to the next packet disconnect boundary, and wherein a communication protocol of the PtP interconnect requires the transmitter to guarantee that the payload length is less than or equal to available credits at the component and to guarantee no stall of packet transfer.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the packet disconnect boundary corresponds to a configurable allowable packet disconnect boundary of the communication protocol of the PtP interconnect.